Funding film and TV studies

On top of her other responsibilities, Denise Bennett is known to spend her free time renovating the studios in the University of Idaho Radio and Television Center, which are generally utilized by broadcasting and film students.

Despite the addition of the film and television studies program to the UI School of Journalism and Mass Media, Bennett said the department didn’t receive any extra funding to maintain the spaces or buy new equipment.

Denise Bennett | Courtesy

“Well, Ken (Idaho Public Television engineer) can fix it, but fixing it is duct tape,” she said. 

The equipment used within the major can be very expensive and becomes outdated quickly, Bennet said. 

The two-year-old program was created to allow the broadcasting and digital media major to have more of a production-based focus, allowing students who were more passionate about the cinematic side of film to have those necessary courses, said Russell Meeuf, director of the film and television studies program. 

Despite only have one student graduate from the major so far, Meeuf said the program is doing well, with about 35 to 40 students enrolled.

“It’s great that we have this new degree,” Bennett said. “(But) I have concerns about what it is going to do to our equipment, because if it grows, we are not going to be able to grow with it, because we don’t have the funding to grow with it.” 

Tanner Schut, a broadcasting and digital media student and former music major, said while students in either program can learn on older equipment, they need higher quality equipment to be knowlegable and competitive. 

“We are a faced with a really unique equipment challenge that other departments don’t have to face,” Schut said.

Russell Meeuf | Courtesy

Underfunding is just one of the problems the program has, Bennett said, as some of the editing rooms the students need to use are not ADA accessible. 

Bennett said a group of students had to carry one of their classmates, who was in a wheelchair, up the stairs because he couldn’t get to the classroom.

Bennett said she applies for every grant possible in order to better the department, but they are only short-term fixes. She hopes the university will focus on prioritizing what programs need funding.

“Ideally, I would love to see an open-source lab for all students — that they can do audio, video, photography; they have access to equipment (and) they have staff that helps,” Bennett said. 

Alex Brizee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @alex_brizee